Apparatus for feeding oil to lamps



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

V. DIMARZO. APPARATUS FOR FEEDING OIL T0 LAMPS.

N0. 429,353. Patented June 3, 1890.

; By Mg ATTORNEY THE mums Perms co, mormnxm, wnsumm'on, n. c.

(No Mo d el.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

V. 'DI 'MARZO. APPARATUS FOR FEEDING OIL T0 LAMPS.

No. 429,353. Patented June 3, 1890 I 5 Z- l E i l ATTORNEY I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

VINCENT DI MARZO, OF LOUISVILLE,KENTUCKY.

APPARATUS FOR F EEDING OIL TO LAMPS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 429,353, dated June 3, 1890.

Application filed November 2, 1889. Serial No. 329,085. (No model.) Patented in France April 27, 1886 No. 175,773; in Belgium December 21, 1886,No. 75,670, and in Italy March 5,1887,XXI, 21.216, and XLII, 43.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VINCENT DI MARZO, of Louisville, in the county of Jeiferson and State of Kentucky, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Feeding Oil to Lamps, (for which Letters Patent were granted me in Belgium, No. 75,670, dated December 21, 1886 3 in France, Additional Improvement January 29, 1887, on original patent, N0.'175,773, dated April 27, 1886; and in Italy, vol. 21, No. 21,216, and vol. 42, No. 43, dated March 5, 1887,) of which the following is aspecification.

The object of my invention is to provide a means for continuously feeding or supplying oil to lamps suspended from the ceiling or supported on the side wall by brackets without risk from fire and without soiling the walls of the room.

To this end it consists in a system of pipes, like gas-pipes, which. are connected to a reservoir for oil placed in the cellar, basement, or vault below the lamps, and a water-reservoir also placed in the cellar and connected with the oil-reservoir at the bottom, and provided with a weighted gravitating plunger for forcing the oil up through the system of pipes to the lamps by displacing the oil in the reservoir by a body of liquid which, having a gravity superior to that of the oil, causes the oil to rise through the pipes, a regulator being placed in the pipe leading to the lamps, so as to keep the level of the oil in the lamps within the proper limit for convenient and safe combustion.

Figure 1 is a vertical section of a part of a building equipped with my apparatus; and Figs. 2 and 3 are sectional details of the regulating apparatus.

In the drawings, A represents the oil-reservoir, which is located in the cellar or basement or within a vault, or it may be buried in the ground outside the house. The object of this location is to reduce the risk from fire, to prevent the heating and evaporation of the oil, and the leakage of the oil through the walls of the building. The oil from this reservoir is to be forced up to and fed with a moderate and regulated pressure to the various lamps of the house, which maybe suspended from the ceiling, as at F, or be arranged upon brackets projecting from the side walls, as at F. For this purpose a pipe 0 is connected to the top of the oil-reservoir and leads to the various lamps of the house, being hidden bet-ween the partitions and floors, so as to produce no unsightly effect.

To displace the oil in reservoir A, I use a water-tank B, placed on the same level, or approximately the same level, as the oil-reservoir. Th'is water-tank B is provided with a tight-fitting plunger P, which is weighted, and whose descent forces the water in tank B through a communicating pipe and valve a into the oil-reservoir to effect the displacement of the oil and its gradual feed upward by the superior gravity of the water to the various lamps of the building.

The advantage in using the body of water in the reservoir B, in contradistinction to placing oil in tank B, is that the permeating and insidious nature of oil allows it to rapidly leak and evaporate, and if used in tank B it would soon leak past the piston, and a large loss from evaporation with consequent danger would be entailed. By using water in B this loss and danger from leakage and evaporation are avoided, and yet pressure is applied to the oil to feed it to the lamps.

In order that the oil may not be fed to the lamps any faster than it is consumed I employ a regulator between the oil-pipes and the lamps, as shown at E and E. This regulator consists (see Figs. 2 and 3) simply of a float 6, attached to a lever e, which has a valve e that closes the outlet to the lamp whenever the float is raised in the regulator beyond a certain level. This float must be so adjusted as to keep the level of the oil somewhat below the level of the burner of the lamp, so that the burner does not become flooded with oil, which condition if allowed to take place might produce disastrous results. After all the oil has been displaced in reservoir A by the water, and it is desired to refill the reservoir A with oil, the water is drawn out by means of a stop-cock b, which is then closed and the reservoir A filled with oil again through the inlet 0. After the res Ice ervoir A is filled with oil the tank B is refilled with water.

In defining my invention with greater clearness with reference to the prior state of the art I would remark that I am aware that portable lamps have been provided with autpmatic regulating-valves, and I do not claim t iis.

I am also aware that in vapor-burners, 1

which have no wick, oil has been forced up to the level of a burner from a subjacent tank by means of a superposed tank of water, but with such apparatus there was no automatic regulating-valves, and hence such system was not applicable to supplying wicklamps located throughout the building upon the different levels of the different stories, for the reason that without the automatic regulator-valve the lamps of the lower story would be flooded and set fire to the house before the level of the oil could reach the lamps of upper stories. lVith the automatic regulator-valve, in combination with the single system of pipes and reservoir, lamps may be uniformly and safely supplied with oil under my system upon all the floors of the building without leakage or danger.

I show incidentally in the drawings a watertank 3, to be placed in the attic or upon the roof and to be filled with water and used in the place of the reservoir B; but in this location it is liable-to freeze, is difficult to fill, and, besides, possesses little or no novelty, and I therefore make no claim to the same. I furthermore make no claim in this case to y the special form of regulator shown, as I have already covered the same in a patent granted me December 24, 1889, No. 18,113.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is- I The combination of a set 'of stationary lamps fixed at various points about a building, oil-supply pipes extending to said lamps along the walls, partitions, or floors of the building, an automatic regulating-Valve for each lamp arranged between the supply-pipes and the burner, a subjac'ent oil-reservoir communicating with the system of pipes and located below the lamps, a Water-supply tank B, connected by pipe and a valve a with the oil-reservoir, and a gravitating plunger P, arranged in the tank B, to force Water into the oil-reservoir and displace the oil upwardly and feed it uniformly to the lamps through the regulating-valves, substantially as shown and described.

VINCENT DI MARZO'. \Vitnesses:

GEO. H. ALEXANDER, EDW. XV. BYRN. 

